Bird Retains Stoic Character After Election to Hall of Fame

Larry Bird, ever cool on the court, stayed true to character at the latest reminder of his exalted place in basketball history: the Hall of Fame.

He was elected Monday in his first year of eligibility, and remained as unruffled as when he was hitting last-second shots for the Boston Celtics.

The Indiana Pacers released a statement in his behalf, and perhaps the strongest comment from Bird was to call his election “a great honor.�

Presumably, Bird will expand on that at a news conference scheduled today in Indianapolis, where he coaches the Pacers.

So it was left to others in the hall’s Class of ‘98, announced Monday in Springfield, Mass., to react to their inclusion with the player who led the Celtics to three NBA championships and the NBA into an era of unparalleled popularity.

That class includes Marques Haynes of the Harlem Globetrotters, former NBA coach Alex Hannum, Texas women’s coach Jody Conradt, former NBA center Arnie Risen and Aleksandar Nikolic, who coached in Yugoslavia and Italy.

Magic Johnson almost certainly would have been picked by the required 18 of the 24 unidentified members of the honors committee. But he fell a half-season short of the eligibility requirement of five years in retirement when he returned to the Lakers on Jan. 29, 1996. He’ll be eligible in 2002.

“Going in with Bird is special but, at the same time, it would have been great just going in with any of the players who were considered the great ones,� said Haynes, who played for the Globetrotters and Harlem Magicians and figures he appeared in more than 12,000 games in 106 countries.

“I don’t think there’s anybody who didn’t admire what he [Bird] did,� said Conradt, the winningest women’s coach who has spent the last 22 years at Texas. Hannum, who considers his 1967 NBA champion Philadelphia 76ers the best team ever, saw the more practical side to being inducted Oct. 2 in Springfield, just 90 miles west of Boston.

“My reaction is that it will make seats hard to get,� he said.

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The Dallas Mavericks issued a deadline to German draft pick Dirk Nowitzki, saying they want to know by today if he intends to play in Dallas next season or sign with a European team.

Nowitzki, a 6-foot-11, 237-pound forward, was scheduled to fly back to Germany today. The German arrived in Dallas on Sunday following a three-day European recruiting trip by a Mavericks contingent that included Coach-General Manager Don Nelson and owner Ross Perot Jr.